Questa School District hosts Science Night
Parents and students alike got hands-on at Science Night, an event hosted by the Questa Independent School District March 10 at the Alta Vista Elementary gymnasium, where students shared their experiments with their peers.
The goal of the event was to encourage Questa students to get creative with science, some booths around the venue showcasing traditional experiments, like moldy foods, bottle cap rockets and slimy goo, while others were focused on engaging participants by creating art with magnets and music with bananas. Students and families crowded the gym, learning and laughing as the night went on.
The event had its roots in the Questa Junior and Senior High School Honor Society, which chooses an event each year. This year, students decided on Science Night.
“The objective of this night was to take advantage of every opportunity to expose [students] to science with the hopes of them sparking a love for science and continuing to explore,” Santana Santistevan, Honor Society advisor and coordinator of the event, said in an email. “We all know that students whose families are involved in their children’s education significantly benefit in achievement and attitude towards school. Science Night gives families a chance to bond and have fun together while learning something new.”
The event is based around the philosophy underlying a Benjamin Franklin quote: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” According to Santistevan, students who participated in Science Night were provided with a newfound passion for learning, noting one student who has been “working non-stop with a chemistry kit he has at home.” This same student also won an additional kit at the event.
Participants at the event were members of the Honor Society, who outlined their experiments and identified the required materials, which Santistevan then purchased with funds provided by the LOR Foundation, a nonprofit organization that assists in the organization and funding of events in rural communities. The foundation also provided food to the many attendees.
Twirl, a Taos-based organization that promotes youth education, had a booth at the event, where Liana Bayles and Nina Silfverberg taught students how to create electrical circuits using fruit. They challenged kids to create the smallest circuits they could using the materials at the booth. A representative from Taos Soil & Water Conservation was present with a set of their own projects.
While Science Night was a successful event, Santistevan is unsure whether or not it will be an annual occurrence, as it was born of a variety of options. However, the Questa Honor Society will continue to set creative events in the future.